Race and Ethnic Politics Proseminar: American and Comparative Perspectives

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of major theories and empirical approaches to the study of race and ethnicity as political identities. Drawing from works across the social sciences, we will explore a range of topics with implications for politics in the United States and countries around the world. These topics include: how identity should be conceptualized and measured; why some forms of identity are activated, mobilized, and contested; how identities are represented politically; how racial and ethnic identities intersect with other salient identities; how social diversity and civil society are interrelated; what factors affect the integration of immigrants; and which varieties of democracy enable the flourishing of plural identities. Readings for these topics will alternate weekly between a focus on the United States and the other parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Because the study of race and ethnicity intersects with all major subfields of political science, our goal is to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the current state of knowledge as well as the intellectual resources needed to undertake their own original research.